Most people think the U.S. crime rate is rising. They're wrong.
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Almost 80 percent of Americans, and 92 percent of Republicans, think crime has gone up. It actually fell in 2023. An expert blames a familiar culprit for the mistaken impression.

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If people aren’t panicked, they wouldn’t elect panic-pandering politicians, so there must always be a panic — crime, drugs, commies, libruls, etc.

  • @glimseEnglish
    5•11 months ago

    I moved because of crime. My quiet little neighborhood was very peaceful for 10 years and then in a 6 month period a little kid got shot in the face at the park, my neighbor got burglarized, my car got stolen (then recovered), and I got carjacked at gunpoint. And that’s only the major things within a 2 blocks of me in my social circle.

    I am left of center but shit got bad after COVID. Lotta people gave up and I don’t totally blame them

    • @StereoTrespasserEnglish
      2•11 months ago

      You’re getting downvoted by a bunch of people that live in small towns in flyover country that have strong opinions about what goes on in major cities. We too moved out of a major East Coast city during COVID because of a huge spike in crime. That surge is still increasing this year. Those pictures of bare shelves in CVS and Target because cops and store employees are powerless to stop petty thieves? Yep, that’s my city. I can assure you that Target is not lying, because that was my Target.

      I’m not sure why the general consensus on Lemmy and Reddit seems to be that crime is not a problem in major cities. I can only assume it’s because they don’t experience it in their own rural towns. For those of us who have had to deal with neighborhood carjackings, violent assaults, and open air drug markets, it’s an entirely different world out there.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•11 months ago

        I can assure you that Target is not lying, because that was my Target.

        The National Retail Federation admitted they were lying about their losses due to crime, and a bunch of news outlets just reported it

        The main lobbying group for U.S. retailers retracted its claim that “organized retail crime” accounted for nearly half of all inventory losses in 2021 after finding that incorrect data was used for its analysis.

        A spokesperson for the National Retail Federation said Tuesday that the organization had removed the sentence from its report on organized retail crime published in April.

        …

        The NRF’s claim that organized retail crime accounted for “nearly half” of inventory losses was repeated in multiple media reports on the issue. The NRF has cited growing rates of crime in calls for Congress to pass new laws, including proposed legislation that would broaden the scope of offenses considered “organized” crime and increase potential penalties.

        https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-retail-lobbyists-retract-key-claim-organized-retail-crime-2023-12-06/

      • @nexguyEnglish
        4•11 months ago

        No one says crime is not a problem… just that it was worse overall in the past.